Question Period Note: Canada’s Strategy to Address Gender-Based Violence

How is the Government of Canada working to prevent and address GBV through a comprehensive and inclusive approach?

*Canada is committed to preventing and addressing gender-based violence against women, girls, LGBTQ and two-spirit people

*It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence, launched in 2017, has received over $200M in new investments and over $40M per year ongoing to advance efforts in three areas: preventing gender-based violence; supporting survivors and their families; and promoting responsive legal and justice systems.

*Canada’s accomplishments include: funding projects to prevent teen/youth dating violence; launching the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline; and, strengthening the sexual assault provisions in the Criminal Code.

*The new survey on Gender-Based Violence funded through the Strategy released its results on December 5, 2019, and found that: women were nearly four times more likely to experience unwanted sexual behaviour in public than men, and that young women, students, bisexual and lesbian women and women with a disability are at an increased risk of experience unwanted sexual behaviour.

Many Canadians face violence every day because of their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or perceived gender. Gender-based violence (GBV) is a significant barrier to achieving gender equality.

Research shows that women are more likely than men to experience GBV and that some people are at an even higher risk of experiencing GBV, including: Indigenous women and girls, women with a disability, young women, and women living in Northern, rural, remote communities, and lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence (the Strategy), was launched in June 2017. Led by WAGE, the Strategy brings together the GBV-related efforts of all federal departments and agencies. The GBV Knowledge Centre (WAGE), is the focal point of the Strategy and is responsible for governance and coordination, reporting and evaluation, data and research, and knowledge mobilization. As a whole-of-government approach, the Strategy includes federal GBV initiatives, regardless of their source of funding; however, six departments currently receive funding for specific initiatives under the Strategy. Some early results include:

Pillar 1: Preventing GBV
• Funding to 22 projects re: preventing teen/ youth dating violence (PHAC)
• Amending the Canada Labour Code to strengthen existing frameworks for the prevention of harassment and sexual violence in the workplace (Justice Canada)
• Development of Framework to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence at Post-Secondary Institutions (WAGE)

Pillar 2: Supporting Survivors of GBV and their Families
• Launching the GBV Program which provides funding to organizations working in the GBV sector to implement innovative interventions (WAGE)
• Launching the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline (PS)
• Funding 26 Military Family Resource Centres to improve responses to GBV (DND)

Pillar 3: Promoting Responsive Legal and Justice Systems to GBV
• Raising awareness of survivor’s rights and sexual assault myths, and improving capacity to respond in culturally-safe manner (RCMP)
• Strengthening sexual assault provisions in the Criminal Code (Justice Canada)
• Creating the Sexual Assault Review Team, which has completed a review of over 30,000 “unfounded” sexual assault case files (RCMP)

GBV Knowledge Centre
• The KC’s online platform launched in December 2018 (WAGE)
• Three new national surveys were developed to establish baselines on the prevalence of different forms of GBV (WAGE and StatsCan)

The Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces (SSPPS), funded through the GBV Strategy, released its findings on December 5, 2019. Results show that, 32% of women experienced unwanted sexual behaviour in a public place in the 12 months preceding the survey; 30% of women have been sexual assaulted at least once since the age of 15; 29% of women experienced inappropriate sexual behaviour in the workplace in the 12 months preceding the survey; and, 33% of women ages 15-24 have experienced online harassment in the 12 months preceding the survey. Future releases will feature people’s attitudes towards GBV (Dec 9, 2019), LGBTQ experiences of GBV (March 2020), and experiences of intimate-partner violence (late 2020).

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